Prince Edward Island became the first province in Canada to extend its publicly funded school-based HPV vaccination program to boys. The program will use GARDASIL [Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus (Types 6, 11, 16, 18) Recombinant Vaccine], the only HPV vaccine indicated and recommended for boys and men. In 2007, The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommended the quadrivalent HPV vaccine to protect Canadian girls and women aged 9 to 26 against a broad spectrum of HPV-related diseases. In 2012, NACI updated and strengthened its statement related to the use of HPV vaccines and recommended the use of the quadrivalent HPV vaccine in males between 9 to 26 years of age. A national survey conducted in March 2011 by Ipsos Reid, commissioned by Merck, showed that 85% of parents of males would allow their son to get vaccinated against HPV if it was offered through a publicly-funded program at his school, 88% of parents support the assertion that boys should be vaccinated against HPV in the same program as girls, and 91% of parents agree that vaccinating both boys and girls against HPV would provide greater protection than vaccinating girls alone.
